blueprint

We plan to establish a long term Tree Centre in Mount’s Bay for our local schools and colleges.

This Educational Tree Centre will provide a safe, peaceful place for flexible lessons in environmental awareness, and holistic healthcare.

Please let us know if any amenity land or woodland becomes available, e.g. above and around Gulval.

plan

This safe open area near Mounts Bay will encourage environmental awareness. It will have a peaceful, sunny central meadow, a small marshy area, light groves of flowering and fruiting trees and bushes with denser planting around its perimeters. Northern evergreen trees will provide a denser, more sheltered habitat.

As native trees regenerate, children can gather their seeds and nuts and learn to propagate new trees.

Small groups of children can visit in the morning or afternoon, via an online calendar.

This site will need time for natural regeneration and gentle rewilding. Part of the land can be roughly hedged off - depending on its overall size - so that (apart from reinforcing outer boundaries, scything the round meadow after flowering, etc) maintenance is minimal. Educators can teach the environmental principles of ‘leave no trace’. Birds and animals can enjoy a peaceful refuge here. High, curved BeeKind hives will be designed to protect native pollinators, not promote honey thieves.  People will learn to put nature first.

Legal covenants will safeguard the site from future development or exploitation. Sellers will feel safe parting with amenity or similar land to create such a safe, useful oasis.

This is a long-term venture, anticipating successive generations needs for access to wild, learning spaces in an overly built up and increasingly flooded world.

Expenses wil always be kept to a minimum. Impenetrable outer hedges and a secure gate are essential. Ideally, there should be nothing man made. Anything deemed absolutely necessary, (such as eco toilets near the gate constructed from natural materials), should be unobtrusive so nothing will interfere with the Tree Centre’s changing seasonal qualities.

Encouraged by flexible teachers and youth leaders young people can reflect on the vital role of trees within all our lives. They really are ‘Trees of Life’. Leaves absorb light and regulate the air we breathe. Roots secure the soil. Trees provide homes for multiple species. Their yearly variations inspire our developing art, music, poetry and literature - as we ourselves evolve.

Scientists say trees give off positive ions. Meditative peace is achieved by Japanese ‘forest bathers’.  Swedish ‘forest schools’ provide living class rooms to energise young pupils. Trees are not just for food and construction but aid mental health. Unique arboreal essences, like salix in willow, used by herbalists and pharmacists alike, can promote emotional wellbeing. Trees provide healing, wisdom, and perfect links with the natural world.